Hermione's Mask
by AlyssPotter
Summary: Hermione Granger is getting married. But even still, she finds herself alone.


**Authors note:**

**Hey guy's! Thanks sooooooo much to all of you who read my other story already! That many views in 5 hours are awesome! And because there were over 150 viewers already, I'm making this early (and out of my own time, mind you). This is a one-shot about Hermione's life after the war. It's going to be a little more down trodden and depressed, just because I like stories like this. I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I loved writing it! Just remember to grab a box of tissues, 'cause it's really sad.**

**Songs: **

** Everybody's fool by Evanescence**

** watch?v=9u_Zse5YNmY**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Harry Potter (though I wish I did)**

Winter. A time of endings, and new beginnings. The forest was covered in a thin blanket of fresh snow. The forest was quiet, except for the occasional rustling of bushes and trees, as winter animals jumped to and fro, collecting winter rations and making new nests for the spring.

Hermione Granger was walking through the forest, wearing her jeans and brown boots, a blue jacket hugging her torso, and a red and gold hat on her mane of hair. She rubbed her mitten-covered hands together, looking up at the cloud-covered sky, watching as the snowflakes slowly drifted down. She reached a clearing

Hermione laughed, spinning around in the fresh snow. She tripped on a tree root, and fell down gracelessly, surprised. Then she let out a squeal of laughter and flopped down on her back, moving her arms up and down to make a snow angle.

After a few minutes she lay there and sighed, closing her eyes and stilling. Only moments latter, she heard a rustle in the bush. Startled she looked up to see a fox cub, small, and snowy white. It jumped out and sniffed her cautiously. Hermione giggled.

The cub jumped back in surprise. It obviously wasn't expecting her to be moving, much less making noise. She leaned over to the fox cub, which tried to scamper away, but she picked him up. He squirmed about in her arms, until she started petting him. When she scratched him behind the ears, his foot started to thump up and down, not unlike a dog.

After a bit, she set him down, allowing him to roam free. She watched as he scampered off into the forest. Sighing, she got to her knees and stared at the sky, willing herself not to cry.

Today was New Years Eve, also the night Ron proposed to her. She was quite surprised, to say the least. But after the shock had worn off, she had told him yes, as she knew with her heart that she loved him. The Weasly household had erupted in cheers, but doubts had formed in her mind. Were they going into this too soon? After all, they had only been dating less than a year.

But as usual, she had been wearing her mask to cover her true feelings, holding Ron's hand and laughing, thanking everyone for the congratulations. Then she asked Ron if she could have some time alone, to process what had just happened, which he readily agreed to. The mask had slowly started to dissipate as she had walked into the forest.

She called it the Hermione special, a mask that was truly indestructible. No one had been able to break it, except for the one time Ron had left Harry and her at the camp. She had been depressed, but had tried to pick up all the pieces to her mask and reassemble it for Harry's sake. When Ron had returned, she had been furious. He expected them to just accept him again, pretend that nothing had happened, that no one was hurt! And Harry, siding with Ron behind the shield, as she had once sided with him. It made her anger burst beyond the boundaries, and for a few minutes, her true personality had emerged. But she quickly calmed down, and held her fake mask up, still angry, but hiding how happy she was Ron was back. Almost unconscious, her shield had started to reassemble itself.

It was nearly shattered again at the final battle. She was so close to losing it, and the only thing that kept it there was her need to help Ron through the death of Fred. When she saw Malfoy after the final battle, she almost thanked him. It was he, after all that caused to have the shield completed in the first place.

Sighing she got up, and looked at the snowflakes, yet again. One landed on her nose.

"At least you are your own person," she whispered, watching it slowly melt on her nose.

The Crystal tears started forming, glowing in the setting sun. The forest lost its playful composition, turning into its alternate form of death. The snow fell harder, creating miniature tornados, while gusts of wind whipped Hermione's hair in her face.

Whishing she could do anything but go back, Hermione constructed her mask of happiness onto her face, and set back to the burrow in the darkening night sky.

**A/N**

**Oh my gosh! I made myself cry. Poor Hermione. She's always alone, no matter how many people she surrounds herself with. I'm thinking of writing a prequel to this, what do you all think?**

**Also, I'm still going to upload the next chapter to I'm a Rebel tomorrow.**

**Oh, and by the way, to the person who reviewed this, I fixed that minor word miss. Thanks for informing me of it, and actually reviewing!**

**Love from**

**Alyss**


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